College trade group rehabbing historic building in Weinland Park

The Association of College & University Housing Officers – International is rehabbing a historic 1929 three-story structure for offices and meeting space in the Weinland Park neighborhood near the Ohio State University campus.

The nonprofit trade organization, which has leased space northwest of campus since affiliating with the university for its administrative office in the 1980s, wanted to stay near campus for its interns and to increase the 17-member staff’s community involvement, said Sallie Traxler, executive director.

“When we found the building at 1445 Summit St., the stars aligned,” she said. “This building – it quite honestly needed somebody to save it.”

The $1.7 million project, led by contractor M. Warner Construction Inc. of Columbus, includes the $375,000 purchase in March from the nonprofit National Youth Advocate Program, which moved to an office on Watermark Drive. It’s being financed from a bank loan, assets and the anticipated revenue stream from leasing out third-floor office space to businesses, she said. The goal is to complete the renovation by October.

The work includes restoring the first floor’s open floor plan in the former ceramics manufacturing and research facility for meeting and event space, which Traxler said the organization intends to make available for neighborhood groups.

With jobs and volunteer coordination that require lots of travel, she said, “Being involved in our community is important to us.”

Designed by Howard Smith, the architect of Ohio State’s main library and Ohio Stadium, the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Replacing all 80 windows required commission approval. Interior work includes removing asbestos, replacing heating and ventilation, a new elevator and making the building accessible to people with disabilities.

The organization had revenue of $3.5 million in 2011, according to its most recent IRS filing. It has 17 employees and up to 10 student interns at any one time. It produces research, training and events for university administrators to improve the on-campus experience, such as a project on building and design considerations for housing 21st-century students.

The group’s records used to travel in boxes to the school of each year’s volunteer president, Traxler said. In the 1980s Ohio State won a bid process to host a permanent administrative office. To save on costs such as benefits, the group’s staff is employed by the university and it reimburses the school.